27/March/99

The bombing of NATO against Yugoslavia represent a striking offence against the international right and the practices of transnational conflict resolution. The bombings have to be understood, as it has been described by independent, international right experts, as an act of war in direct conflict with international law, independent of the political evaluation of the causes as well as the question of guilt and the expected developments of the conflict in Kosovo. They cost human lives.

The bombings not only represent no contribution for a political solution for this conflict within Yugoslavia, but they could even lead to a solidification of the conflict between the people which might be irreversible. Thereby they render the perspective of a shared political framework for Serbs and Kosovo Albanians impossible, as it has been identified in Rambouillet as the aim of the European group of negotiatiors. Instead, the NATO war generates the immediate danger that new conflicts could set the entire region in unrest. Therefore we require from the Austrian Federal Government, which pursues neutrality:

1. With the background of the experiences with the conscious disinformation campaign and media-driven warfare in the Iraq war 1991, activities in favour of the immediate set-up of an international group of war observers, which has to correct the information monopoly of NATO.
2. Support for the opening of the European borders as well as humanitarian support for war refugees, conscientious objectors, dissidents and others at life and health threatened persons from the war theatre.
3. Mobilisation of all available diplomatic possibilities on the highest political level for the termination of the bombings and for a political solution of the conflict.
4. Support of all democratic forces in Serbia and in the Kosovo as well as the active political, financial and infrastructural support of the independent media in this war.
5. Active support of the dialogue between the different ethnic groups involved in the conflict, who live in Austria.